Silent Hunter 5 features a new top-down map to plan your strategy. Enemy ships appear with a black arrow indicating heading, and they are encircled by a grey radius that represents the limit of their detection range. A second radius shows their hydrophone range (the range at which they can hear your sub). At full throttle you are easily detected, but if you slow to a near stop, then this radius will be reduced dramatically.

There's a trade-off between remaining undetected and gathering information on your enemies' whereabouts, and if you're spotted, you'll need to balance speed and stealth to get out of there alive. The best way to attack targets is to use stealth to flank enemy units and attack them from behind, and when you're ready to attack, use the periscope view. The tactical map now appears in periscope view, which gives you the benefit of being able to see the overall strategy while targeting enemies.

Ubisoft has tried to make things easier when aiming and firing. Launching a torpedo at a moving target means you need to aim ahead of the target, and unless you're at point-blank range, a hit can be difficult to achieve. In Silent Hunter 5 your tactical map will show the trajectories of your torpedo and the targeted ship, and each trajectory has several numbered reticles. Lining up your ship so that these numbers overlap will maximise the chance of a direct hit. After a successful hit, and depending on how cruel you're feeling, you can either destroy the ship completely or target strategic parts, such as the engine, and cause it to sink slowly into the murky depths below.